Year of Faith Ecumenical Service

On August 8th an Ecumenical Service dedicated to the Year of Faith will be held at 6pm in the Bangor Roseto Presbyterian Church located at 332 Kennedy Drive, Bangor, PA . Rev. J. Harry McElroy will deliver the Welcome & Invocation, Rev. Thomas Prior will read the Scripture & Gospel, Rev. Barry Eng will deliver the Sermon, and Rev. James Prior will conduct the Benediction. A Social Hour will also be held after the service.

The Blue and White Scholastic Foundation, a Pennsylvania non-profit Corporation which benefits Pius X High School, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and Immaculate Conception schools, announced that it had awarded 17 scholarships to families of children who would have been entering Pius X.

It was announced that Samantha Molle would be crowned Queen of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Religious/Civil Celebration in Roseto. Melissa Sabatine was selected as the Celebration Princess. Courtney Karasek and Rebecca Saggiamo were flower girls for the queen. Olivia Martino was flower girl for the princess. Crown Bearer was Zachary Karasek. Page boys were Dante Molle and Anthony Martino.

The tenants of the Bangor High Rise donated $1,696 to Relay for Life.

Heritage Center presentation FeaturesWorld War II and D-Day Invasion

The Slate Belt Heritage Center will hold their monthly historic presentation on Thursday, August 8th at 7:00 PM. Speaker for the evening will be Mr. David Longenbach whose topic will be" WW IIand the D-Day" Invasion. Mr. Longenbach is an expert on military history and is currently on the faculty staff at Penn State University. He is working on his PhD at Temple University. This event is free and open to the public. The Heritage Center is located at 30 North 1st Street, Bangor, PA. For additional information please contact: Janet Miller @ 610-588-3434.

Trip to the Trump

St. Elizabeth of Hungary church in Pen Argyl is sponsoring a trip to the Trump Casino in Atlantic City on Thursday, August 8. There are two pick-up locations; the first at the church parking lot in Pen Argyl and the second at the old St. Joseph's church in Wind Gap. It's almost the end of summer already, don't forget to stroll the boardwalk in A.C.! For more information, please call Mary Lou Derea Lohman at 610-863-4846 or 610-844-4630.

US 22/PA 145 Interchange Project Enters Phase 4

Lane restrictions beginning August 12, 2013 are scheduled to occur on US 22 and PA 145/MacArthur Road in the area of the US 22 interchange with PA 145 in Whitehall Township, Lehigh County. The traffic restrictions will allow workers to safely move concrete barriers, paint lines and implement new travel lane configurations as the project enters the fourth of five phases. Lane restrictions will occur on US 22 east and west between 15th Street and Fullerton Avenue beginning at 10 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 12 through 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 13 while workers move barriers. Lane restrictions will also occur on PA 145 north and south between Grape Street and Fairmont Avenue beginning at 10 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 12 through 6a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 13 while workers shift the PA 145 north travel lanes from their current location in the eastern side of the bridge to the new section at the center of the bridge. Also on the evening of Aug. 12 the existing US 22 east ramp to PA 145 north will be closed and all US 22 east traffic will use the same ramp to access PA145 north and south. This will be the permanent configuration for US 22east traffic wishing to access PA 145. Visit 1. www.145-22int.com to see a diagram of the Phase 4 traffic patterns (click on “Project Overview” and then “Phase4”). Motorists should expect delays and use caution driving through the work zones. A project began in May 2012 on the US 22/PA 145 Interchange Project that involves the reconstruction of PA 145/MacArthur Road in the area of the interchange, replacing the PA 145/MacArthur Road Bridge over US 22, and construction of new interchange ramps. The interchange is being reconfigured to eliminate the current merging movements on the US 22 on/off ramps by replacing the cloverleaf interchange with a diamond interchange. Other improvements include new traffic signals on PA 145/MacArthur Road at the interchange ramps and constructing a wider and taller PA 145/MacArthur Road Bridge over US 22. The project is expected to be complete in December. All schedules are weather dependent. The project is designed to improve traffic flow for the 87,000 vehicles traveling US 22 and the 38,000 vehicles traveling PA 145/MacArthur Road each day. Follow local PennDOT information on Twitter at www.twitter.com/511PAAllentown.

Bus-Sized 'Fatberg' Clogged London Sewer

Repairs have started after Britain's biggest ever 'fatberg' - the size of a double-decker bus - was removed from a London sewer. The 15-tonne mass of festering food fat mixed with wet wipes and sanitary products threatened to send raw sewage spurting onto the leafy streets of Kingston upon Thames. "We've never seen a single, congealed lump of lard this big clogging our sewers before," said Gordon Hailwood, waste contracts supervisor for Thames Water. The foul blockage was discovered when residents of nearby flats complained they could not flush their toilets. Investigators found that the sewer had been reduced to just five per cent of its normal capacity. Workmen used an extremely high-pressure jet hose to blast away the massive blockage - but the size of the 'fatberg' meant it took them 10 nights of graft. Water bosses want the public to change their ways to help avoid another gigantic fat blob forming under London's streets. For fat, sanitary items and wet wipes - which do not break down like toilet paper - the message is: 'Bin it - don't block it'.

News Published Free in The Town Topics

If you want to publish an announcement about your organization, sign-ups for Little League, or similar information - this a FREE service provided by the Town Topics. Charges only result when you publish something in the form of display advertising. Send us your news by e-mail to sbtopics@rcn.com, call 610-863-1988, text 570-688-3724, facebook@sbtopics or mail to 335 S Franklin St., Pen Argyl, PA 18072.

Masses of Plastic Particles Found in Great Lakes

In this 2012 photo provided by 5gyres.org is a sample collected in eastern Lake Erie showing tiny bits of plastic on a penny. (AP Photo/Courtesy 5gyres.org, Carolyn Box)

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Already ravaged by toxic algae, invasive mussels and industrial pollution, the Great Lakes now confront another potential threat that few had even imagined until recently: untold millions of plastic litter bits, some visible only through a microscope. Scientists who have studied gigantic masses of floating plastic in the world's oceans are now reporting similar discoveries in the lakes that make up nearly one-fifth of the world's fresh water. They retrieved the particles from Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie last year. This summer, they're widening the search to Lakes Michigan and Ontario, skimming the surface with finely meshed netting dragged behind sailing vessels. Experts say it's unclear how long "microplastic" pollution has been in the lakes or how it is affecting the environment. Studies are under way to determine whether fish are eating the particles. The newly identified hazard is the latest of many for a Great Lakes fish population that has been hammered by natural enemies like the parasitic sea lamprey, which nearly wiped out lake trout, and man-made contamination. Through it all, the fishing industry remains a pillar of the region's tourist economy. Until the research is completed, it won't be clear whether the pollution will affect fishing guidelines, the use of certain plastics or cities that discharge treated wastewater into the lakes. Scientists have already made a couple startling finds. The sheer number of plastic specks in some samples hauled from Lake Erie, the shallowest and smallest by volume, were higher than in comparable samples taken in the oceans. Also, while it's unknown where the ocean plastic came from, microscopic examination of Great Lakes samples has produced a smoking gun: many particles are perfectly round pellets. The scientists suspect they are abrasive "micro beads" used in personal care products such as facial and body washes and toothpaste. A more complicated question is whether the particles are soaking up toxins in the water, potentially contaminating fish that eat them - and sending them up the food chain. The Great Lakes are no stranger to ecological calamity. Zebra and quagga mussels have destabilized food chains, and ravenous Asian carp are poised to invade. Runaway algae blooms that had been stamped out a generation ago have returned. Dozens of harbors and river mouths are fouled with toxic waste.